


I Was Born Sick, But I Love You

by Dandy



Category: Free!
Genre: Dragon Age AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-09 02:21:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3232679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dandy/pseuds/Dandy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Blight is ended by the Hero of Fereldan, Redcliffe farmboy Rin Matsuoka travels to Lake Calenhad to learn how to be a templar. There, he meets a young elven mage named Rei, and, despite discouragement from other templars, he becomes Rei's friend. But friendship between a templar and a mage is sure to end in tragedy - or at least, that's what everyone else says.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Was Born Sick, But I Love You

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for RinRei Week day 4, the prompt was "AU." I've been playing lots of Inquisition so of course I had to do a Dragon Age AU. I'm taking some liberties because I think it's more common for templar recruits to be trained in monasteries or other camps rather than within the circle but I wanted them to meet young so it's sort of an AU of an AU.
> 
> I didn't get it finished in time and there is an unknown ETA on the rest but I do intend to finish it.
> 
> Title from "Take Me To Church" by Hozier.

“Hello!”

The cheerful greeting is too loud in the library, knocking through the air like a careless shout, even if it wasn’t meant as one. The boisterous templar (in training!) grins down at the subject of his attention, an elf about his age or a little younger, curled up against the wall with a tome larger than both their heads put together.

The elf looks up, squinting at him with the brightest purple eyes the other boy has ever seen, brow creased from his earlier concentration, now converted to confusion, mouth slightly parted in a irate manner.

If it scares him, a mage, that the boy talking to him is a templar-to-be, he doesn’t show it.

“What?”

“I said hello!” The templar frowns. “When someone says hello to you, you’re supposed to say hello back. Don’t you know that?”

“Of course I know that.” The boy sniffs, and folds his arms. A moment passes, then he looks away, mumbling politely, “Hello, ser.”

“What? Now you’re being so formal!” The trainee puts his hands on his hips, as though to chastise the poor mage. “I’m not even a ser yet. My name is Rin!”

The boy looks back at Rin, stares at him a moment with hard, cold eyes. Rin starts to feel a bit uncomfortable under that gaze, shifting on his feet. “Now you tell me  _your_  name.”

“I won’t.”

“Why not!?”

“Because I’m a mage and you’re a templar.” He looks back at his book. “That’s just the way it is.”

“But I haven’t taken my vow, and you haven’t done your Harrowing, so-”

“It doesn’t matter.” The boy turns a page. “Please leave me alone. I’m trying to study.”

Rin looks indignant. He’s made several friends in the Order since first arriving a few months before, but the mages all look on him with scorn and disdain. He’d at least thought  _this_  one though, his own age, who was always looking out windows so curiously, would respond to him favorably.

He opens his mouth to say more, but stops when he‘s suddenly called to by a superior. “Stop bothering the mages! Boy, aren’t you supposed to be with the others learning the Chant!?”

And so he goes.

* * *

 

It’s two days later and past curfew when Rin sees the elf again.

He’d snuck out for a snack from the kitchens, and apparently the mage has snuck out for something much less interesting: to keep studying.

Rin thinks maybe he would be more interested in studying too, though, if he could use magic.

Though he knows he’ll be in big trouble if he gets caught, Rin swerves from his original path to the kitchen and goes to lean on the table the elf’s sitting at, smiling at him.

“Hello!”

The elf gives a shriek of surprise and Rin panics, shooting out a hand to cover the other boy’s mouth. He looks around frantically for any signs of templars or older mages patrolling, but neither sees nor hears anything. He turns his attention back to his captive.

“Shhh! Are you crazy? You’re going to get us caught!”

The boy is staring at him with wide, fearful eyes. Rin’s struck by them again - he thought only girls had eyes that pretty.

Slowly, he lowers his hand, and some of the fear leaves the elf. Still, he sinks his head into his arms on the table, moaning miserably. “What do you mean? I’m already caught.”

Rin just blinks at him. “Huh?”

“You. You’re going to turn me in, now, right?” He looks up, searching Rin’s face like he’s trying to discern something from it.

Rin shakes his head. “I’d just get in trouble, too. And I do  _not_  want to be stuck doing dishes for the next two weeks.”

Now the elf’s the one who looks confused. “You’re not patrolling?”

“No. I’m supposed to be in bed, just like you.”

The mage hesitates, obviously thinking it over. He still looks suspicious, but it’s true that if Rin were patrolling, he would already be getting hauled off to be disciplined.

“Then why are you up?”

“I wanted something to eat,” Rin answers conspiratorially, giving the mage a grin like he’s letting him in on a major secret. “Say, do you want something?”

“…No,” says the mage, turning back to his book.

“Are you sure?” Rin prods, furrowing his brow. For a moment he’d thought the boy was going to relent; he’d shown interest, but then he’d been turned down.

“I-“

The boy hushes as his stomach suddenly rumbles, loud enough for both of them to hear, and Rin’s grin widens as the mage blushes.

“…I’ll come with you.”

“Great,” Rin whispers in glee, moving back so the mage can get up. He carefully shuts the book before sliding off his chair, huffing a little as he heaves the book up from the table. It’s another of those huge tomes.

“What are you doing? Hurry up!” Rin hisses, watching as the elf carries the book back to a shelf.

“I have to put this up! What if someone finds it and I get caught?”

“Well, do it quickly!”

The elf hurries to put the book up, then rushes back to join Rin. The two boys huddle close together as they leave the library and make their way to the kitchens.

Other than one instance where they have to dive into a side room to avoid an adult mage, they make it without incident. The boys root around, looking for something to satisfy their late night hunger.

“What do you want?” Rin whispers, frowning at a pantry full of oats and flour.

“Just some bread or some fruit would be fine,” the elf whispers back, eliciting an exasperated groan from Rin.

“We have our pick and you want to eat something boring like bread?” Rin reaches for a brass dome covering a platter. “What we really need is… cake!”

The elf hesitates from where his hand is on an apple. After a moment, he abandons it and comes over, watching as Rin fetches a knife and cuts out a piece of the cake.

“We’ll  _really_  get in trouble for eating that,” he whispers, worrying his lip with his teeth.

“Don’t worry, we won’t get caught,” Rin replies, cutting out another piece and pushing it toward the elf. “I don’t like the really sweet kind, but this kind is good! See? It’s got berries in it.”

“I’ve had it before,” says the elf a bit testily, but he takes the cake. He hesitates, watching Rin, who grins and eats the cake with his hands, biting off a big chunk and giving a happy groan as he eats it. Then he takes a bite himself. 

The cake’s good. He allows himself a small smile, and Rin giggles.

“Hey, you can smile after all!”

The elf immediately drops his smile, frowning at Rin. “I’m not-“

There’s the sudden creak of a door opening, and both boys freeze. Catching each other’s frightened eyes, they both crouch down below the table and strain their ears for sounds from the intruder.

Armored footsteps. A templar.

Quietly, the two boys creep away from the table and the door the templar entered from, rolling their feet to make as little noise as possible. There’s a low divider wall separating them from the templar, so he can’t see them yet, but he’s approaching.

Creasing his brow in concentration, the mage raises his hand. It glows for a moment, then a small bolt of lightning shoots out of his palm and arcs past the divider, hitting some pots on the far wall and knocking them down with a loud clatter. The templar jumps, having missed the magic, and he turns and goes to investigate, while Rin and the elf turn and run out the door.

They keep running until they’re well away from the kitchen, ignoring that they’re crushing their stolen cake in their fists. Rin notices with competitive annoyance that the elf is faster than him, easily overtaking him and flying along several feet ahead of him at a breakneck pace. He tries to speed up, but can only close the gap by a foot or so.

They finally duck into an empty side room and collapse on the floor, both panting heavily. When Rin finally looks up at the elf, grinning from the adrenaline and the thrill of getting away, he finds the other boy glaring daggers at him.

“You are completely insane. We could have been caught! I used magic around a templar! I could have gotten in so much trouble for that!” He rubs his temple in exasperation. “Do you  _know_  how much trouble I could have been in right now?”

“ _Could have been_ ,” says Rin pointedly. “We got away, didn’t we? And look!”

He holds up his hand proudly and opens it, revealing the completely crushed cake in his palm.

“We can still eat our cake!”

The elf stares at him, incredulous, for a very long moment. Then he makes a strangled noise, and Rin thinks he’s about to start shouting again, when instead he starts  _laughing_.

His laugh is loud,  _boisterous_  if Rin were to use a big word to describe it, and quite possibly the most ridiculous laugh Rin has ever heard.

He vows to himself that he’s going to hear it again.

When the elf finally calms down, he smiles at Rin, opening his palm to show his own cake.

“I suppose we still can.”

* * *

 

He finds the elf in a side room late one afternoon, just as the sun is starting to set. He’s leaning on a windowsill, looking outside at a field on the banks of Lake Calenhad.

“Hey, what’re you-“ Rin starts to ask, but the mage holds up a hand for silence, staring intently out the window. Quieting, Rin walks over and leans next to him, peering out to try and see what has the other boy so interested. He can see blue wildflowers, but otherwise nothing to capture his eye. 

After a moment, the mage raises his staff, still looking outside, and, with a deep breath, he casts a spell on the field below the window. A glyph of repulsion, Rin guesses from his training, but he can’t tell what the elf is trying to repel. The force of the magic ruffles the grass anyway, and then suddenly the things Rin thought were wildflowers rise up from the grass in a great cloud, and he realizes that they’re not flowers at all, but _butterflies_.

They rise up and fill the air in glittering waves, hues of blue shining in the late afternoon sun. Rin watches in delighted wonder as they flutter through the air, reaching out a hand like he can touch them, but they keep their distance from the Circle Tower’s walls.

“Beautiful, aren’t they?” says the elf, causing Rin to tear his eyes from the butterflies to look at him instead. He looks completely enraptured, eyes sparkling, seeming to reflect the blue of the butterflies’ wings.

He smiles and starts to agree, but then clears his throat, remembering that he’s a big templar in training now. “They’re nice,” he says, but something in the smirk the elf gets on his face tells Rin he knows that he really does agree. Rin huffs but looks back out at the butterflies.

As the insects start to settle back down from their disturbance, the elf says, “I’m Rei.”

“Huh?” Rin blurts, looking back at him, wondering if “rei” is some elf word he’s never heard before.

The elf rolls his eyes and looks back at him. “My  _name_. It’s Rei.”

“Oh.” Rin blinks. “OH!”

A warm happiness fills him as he realizes the significance. Despite telling him he wouldn’t, Rei just told Rin his name.

Rin can’t keep himself from throwing his arms around the other boy’s shoulders.

…

“I’d never met an elf before you, you know. Redcliffe didn’t have an alienage.”

“Is that why you came and bothered me? Because you’d never met an elf before?”

“Yep!”

“You admit it so casually!?”

“Why not? Is that a problem?”

“It’s just… humans are always doing that. Either they treat me as something disgusting, or they look at me like some exotic animal.”

“I don’t think you’re either of those things!”

“You just said you only talked to me because you’d never seen an elf before!”

“…I suppose I did, huh?”

“So that’s it!? Not even an apology? Honestly, Ser Rin, sometimes I think you’re just  _trying_  to hurt my feelings.”

“I’m not, and I told you not to address me as ser!”

“I’ll address you as ser because that’s what you are.”

“Hmph.”

“Hmph.”

“…”

“…”

“…That’s not the only reason I talked to you.”

“You don’t have to lie-“

“I’m not! It’s just that I’d always see you sitting alone. I wondered if you were lonely.”

“…Lonely? Me?”

“Yes.”

“Did I  _look_  lonely?”

“Heh. Yes, usually.”

“…Well, I wasn’t. I was fine.”

“Really? But-“

“I’m fine. I don’t need anyone.”

“But you like being friends with me, don’t you?”

“I tolerate being friends with you.”

“But we  _are_  friends. You just said it!”

“…Yes. I suppose I did.”

“Heh, got you! …I like being your friend too, Rei.”

* * *

 

“You don’t really act like a templar.”

“What!? Haven’t you seen my swordplay? I’m the best in my class, I’ll have you know!”

“That may be, but you don’t really act like one regardless.”

“What do you mean?”

“Most templars don’t become friends with mages, that’s all.”

“Hmm, I guess not. I suppose that’s because we might have to kill them, if they ever make a contract with a demon.”

“You  _suppose_!? Don’t you know anything about being a templar, Ser Rin? Honestly.”

“Of course I do! I know that as a templar I’m the last line of defense between innocent lives and the ravages of apostates and abominations.”

“…Right. …Say, Ser Rin, why did you become a templar, anyway?”

“Because of my pa!”

“He wanted you to become a templar?”

“I dunno. He never said anything about it. But it was  _his_  dream, when he was my age. Then his parents died and he had to take care of his siblings, so he never got the chance. He always said he was happy, though, because he met my mother.”

“So you became a templar to honor him?”

“Yep!”

“He must be proud of you.”

“I don’t know. He died in the Blight.”

“Oh. …I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. Unless you’re really a darkspawn.”

“Of course not! I’m just sorry, that you lost your father.”

“Oh. Thanks.”

“And I think it’s nice, that you’re carrying on your father’s dream, but… is it really what  _you_  wanted?”

“Yes.”

“…Then I’m glad for you, Ser Rin.”

“For the last time, I’m not a ser!”

* * *

 

“What do you say we make washing this floor more  _interesting_?”

Rin looks up from where he was scrubbing, wiping sweat off his brow with his arm, and locks eyes with his cleaning companion, another templar recruit and his best friend and biggest rival within the Order.

“It’s like you read my mind, Sousuke.” Rin grinned at him, bracing himself for a race to the finish. “The usual stakes?”

“Last one to finish his side of the hall does the other’s chores tomorrow.”

“Count down together?”

“Three…”

“Two…”

“One…”

“ _GO_!”

The two boys take off, running as fast as they can while bent double and pushing rags across the floor. They forsake cleaning against the wall and under furniture in their haste to be the first to their goal. For a moment, the only sound is scrabbling footsteps, squeaking when they slide on soap and water.

Rin gets to the end of the hall first, skidding into the room at the end and holding his hands up in triumph, tossing the rag in the air.

“Yes! I win!”

“By  _barely_  a second!”

“Still a win!”

“Whatever. I’ll show you tomorrow during sword practice.”

“You mean  _after_  you do all the laundry for me?”

“You have  _laundry duty_  tomorrow!? Blighter…”

“Too late to back out now!” Rin chuckles, then looks around the room. It strikes him that this was the room Rei had shown him the butterflies from, and out of curiosity he goes to the window.

Outside, on the lakeside, he can see all the blue “flowers.” Grinning, he calls the still grumbling Sousuke over.

“Hey, come here!”

Sousuke joins him at the window, looking disgruntled but slightly curious. “What is it?”

Rin picks up a loose stone on the windowsill and aims down. “Watch this.”

He throws the rock, and while it’s not as effective as Rei’s spell had been, a large patch of the butterflies still rise into the air. Rin watches them, then looks expectantly at Sousuke.

“…Butterflies?” asks Sousuke, looking bewildered. “What’s so great about them?” Rin blushes.

“Well, they’re- Look, whatever, never mind. You still have to do my laundry tomorrow,” Rin huffs, embarrassed, and turns away from the window. Sousuke laughs, ignoring the glare that gets aimed in his direction.

“Sorry for insulting your butterflies. They’re  _very pretty_ ,” he says with a snicker, and Rin kicks him lightly in the leg. The light teasing restores equilibrium, and Rin’s blush fades away.

“How’d you learn that trick, anyway?”

“Oh, Rei taught me.”

“Rei?”

“He’s one of the mages. …What?”

Sousuke is staring at him with a look of surprise on his face. Rin stares back at him, puzzled, until his friend clears his throat and asks, “You made friends with a  _mage_?”

“Yeah. He’s… different. Really smart, though.”

“Rin,” says Sousuke, his voice serious, “you know we aren’t supposed to make friends with the mages.”

“Why not? We all live here, don’t we?” says Rin, but he knows exactly why.

“What if he runs, or contracts with a demon?” Sousuke frowns. “Then you might have to-“

“Rei would never do that,” says Rin, with confidence. “He’s too… _normal_.” 

“You can’t know for sure.”

Rin glares at Sousuke with conviction. He knows Sousuke is just worried, but he doesn’t want to hear these speculations about his friend. He doesn’t want to  _think_  these things about his friend. “Rei would _never_  do that.”

“…If you say so.”

“ _Rin_!  _Sousuke_!”

Both boys jump, grimacing at each other, before running out of the room to find their captain in the hall, looking displeased. “Yes, captain?” they both squeak together.

“You two call  _this_  clean!? Do it again! No supper until you finish, and finish it  _correctly_  this time!”

“Yes, Ser!”

* * *

 

“What about your family, Rei?”

“My parents are still back in the alienage in Denerim. My brother is training to be a cobbler.”

“What was it like, living in an alienage?”

“Crowded.”

“That’s it?”

“No. It’s… hard to explain to a human.”

“I want to hear about it. If that’s okay.”

“It is. …We were poor. Everyone was poor. We had to scrape by on what we had. Sometimes, humans would come in and make trouble for us. But… we were all close. And we had our own culture. It’s not what the elves used to have, but it was  _ours_. …Humans don’t know how lucky they have it, knowing their history.”

“I’ve never really thought about it.”

“Of course you haven’t. Why would you need to?”

“…Sorry.”

“I’m not mad at you. It’s not  _your_  fault.”

“…Do you ever think of running away? Finding the Dalish?”

“And become an apostate!? Of course not!”

“Ah, right. But if you weren’t a mage. What then?”

“…I don’t think so. Even if I could find them, I don’t know if they would accept me.”

“Why not? You’re their own kind, aren’t you?”

“I’m with my own kind among mages too, and they don’t-“

“…What?”

“Never mind. Can we talk about something else?”

“…Alright. How about we talk about how I’m going to beat you in a race today?”

“Hahaha! In your dreams, Ser Rin!”

* * *

 

“Ser Rin, are you alright? You’ve been limping…”

“I’m fine. Nngh…”

“That doesn’t sound fine! What’s wrong?”

“Why are you getting so close? What are you, a mother hen.”

“S-sorry. I’m just worried, you look like you’re in pain!”

“…I just got a little bruised up at sword practice today, that’s all.”

“And you didn’t go to a healer!? Ser Rin, that’s very irresponsible! What if you’re more seriously injured than you think? And it seems silly to walk around like this when you could just get it healed!”

“It’s somewhere embarrassing, okay!?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“…”

“I couldn’t hear that, Ser Rin.”

“It’s on my butt! …I sat on a practice sword.”

“…Mmph. Mmm. Hah… hahaha!”

“Don’t laugh at me!”

“Hahaha, I’m sorry, it’s just- Ser Rin, wait, don’t leave! I’m sorry I laughed. Let me heal you.”

“…You know healing magic?”

“Of course! Creation magic is my specialty. I’m more practiced at glyphs and wisps than healing magic, but I’m sure I could heal a small wound.”

“…You’re not going to accidentally shock me or turn me into a toad or something, are you?”

“First of all, I can’t transform you like that, second of all, I don’t make those kinds of mistakes, Ser Rin.”

“I heard you lit a teacher’s robes on fire the other day.”

“That was  _one_  time and a classmate distracted me! …A-anyway, let me make it up to you, please. And then you won’t have to go ask a healer.”

“…I don’t have to take my breeches off, do I?”

“Oh no! No. I can perform the spell through your clothes, now that I know where the injury is.”

“Okay, then… go ahead.”

“Just relax, Ser Rin, it will be fine. …Um… just a minute…”

“Rei? You said you knew this spell.”

“I do! Just… …There! How do you feel?”

“…I feel great. It worked!”

“Oh, good. Because you know, that’s the first time I’ve actually tried that spell on another person and-“

“ _REI_!”

* * *

 

“Have you ever thought about swimming in it?”

“In what?”

“Lake Calenhad! Obviously.”

“No. Why would I want to swim in that lake?”

“Because swimming’s fun!”

“It’s not. It’s an ugly activity.”

“Huh!? What’s  _that_  supposed to mean!?”

“Humans and elves were made to live on  _land_ , Ser Rin. To swim is to deny the natural order.”

“Sometimes I have no idea what you’re talking about, Rei.”

“I’m saying don’t swim in the lake!”

“Boring! I bet you don’t know how to swim, that’s why you hate the idea.”

“…”

“Haha! I knew it.”

“What do I need to learn to swim for, anyway?”

“I already  _said_ , because it’s fun!”

“I doubt it.”

“Try it sometime.”

“…I’ll just sink.”

“No you won’t! I’ll be with you the whole time, and I won’t let you sink. So you have nothing to fret about.”

“…Maybe. Only if you’re with me.”

“Yes! Just wait – summer’s almost here.”

“I’m looking forward to it, Ser Rin.”

* * *

 

The older recruit catches Rin just outside the practice field, leaning over him to force him against a wall.

“Hey there, mage lover,” he says, and Rin narrows his eyes. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened; there have been rumors flying around about him, snide remarks and backhanded insults. Ever since some of them saw him talking with Rei, they had made it their mission to beat him back in line.

“What do you want?”

“Just to talk,” says the boy, smiling, though not pleasantly.

“What about?”

“That knife-ear friend of yours.”

Rin bristles. “Don’t call him that.”

“Fine. But the mage. The one you spend so much time with.”

“What about him?”

“We just wanted to express concern that you’re getting to close to mages. You  _do_  realize you’re a templar, right?”

“Of course.” Rin scowled. “But we’re here to help mages as much as protect others from them, aren’t we?”

“But you can’t get too close. You know what happens when you get too close to mages, right?”

“Yes,” said Rin, sounding bored, “I might have to kill them. I know.”

“No.” The boy leans down closer, and Rin stiffens. “You could be _used_  by them.”

Rin didn’t want to listen to this, but he couldn’t stop himself from asking, “How?”

“Besides becoming a thrall?” The boy’s smile turns sinister. “They could make you think all sorts of heretical things. Start believing that they deserve to be free.”

Rin shook his head. “I don’t think that. Mages need the Circle, and the Chantry.”

“You think that  _now_ , but what happens when he sinks his claws further in. Soon you’ll be encouraging mages to become apostates.”

“I wouldn’t,” Rin asserts.

The boy shoves Rin roughly against the wall, hurting his head and back. “I certainly hope not. But until you cut ties with that mage, don’t expect any of us to trust you.”

The boy turns and walks off. Rin watches him go, telling himself that he won’t be intimidated.

But the seeds of doubt have been planted. What if Rei  _does_  start trying to change him?

What if he can’t become a real templar because of Rei?

* * *

 

“Ser Rin, do you want to meet me later? It’s been awhile.”

“Sorry, I’m busy.”

“Are you sure? Because if I remember your duty roster, you’re not scheduled-“

“The roster changed. Goodbye, Rei.”

“Oh! …Goodbye, then.”

* * *

 

Sousuke gets transferred to the Kirkwall Circle. Rin keeps writing him letters, telling Sousuke about his training, and how it’s going, how he’s improving.

They’re lies, mostly. His form is off, and he’s falling further and further behind the other recruits. They shut him out of their conversations, laugh at him in training.

And there’s Rei, who’s still doing well, who still talks cheerfully to Rin like nothing’s wrong. Like other people don’t hate Rin because of their friendship.

He thinks of his father’s dream, and how it feels further and further away every day.

And he begins to blame Rei.

* * *

 

“Ser Rin! I’ve been looking for you! I saw a different species of butterfly in the field today and I wanted to-“

“I don’t care about your silly butterflies, Rei.”

“…Hahaha, Ser Rin, you don’t have to be embarrassed in front of me.”

“I’m not. I just don’t like them.”

“Oh… Well, can we at least-“

“No. I’m busy.”

* * *

 

Rei sees Rin in the dining room. Their eyes meet, and Rei smiles tentatively and waves.

Rin looks away, pretends he doesn’t see him.

And Rei feels something inside him break.

It’s because he’s an elf.

It’s because he’s a mage.

He was a fool to think things would turn out any way but this.

In a daze, he leaves the dining room. He goes back to his own room, pulls back the sheets on his bed, slips off his shoes, and crawls under the covers.

And he hardens his heart.

* * *

 

Later that night, Rin also lies in bed.

He thinks of the stunned, hurt look on Rei’s face, just before he fled the room, and he feels a pang in his heart.

But Rei is a mage and Rin is a templar. Rei was right in the beginning: this is just the way things are.

And Rin, too, hardens his heart.

* * *

 

“Rin! Your form is sloppy! Straighten up!”

“Yes, Ser!”

“What’s with Rin these days? He used to be top of the class!”

“It’s because that mage made him soft.”

“Or he was just never that good to begin with.”

“Of course! Just a farm boy from Redcliffe, playing at being a templar.”

* * *

 

“See that elf over there? He’s always studying, but his spells aren’t very good.”

“He keeps talking about the “theory” of magic but all that theory won’t help him actually  _do_  magic.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he were made tranquil.”

“No, he’s too good at creation magic for that. He’ll make a decent healer.”

“Maybe he should just  _stick_  to that instead of trying to practice the other schools as well.”

“Pathetic, really.”

* * *

 

Rin stops sending Sousuke letters. Eventually, Sousuke stops, too.

* * *

 

Rei stops talking.

* * *

 

Rin never takes Rei swimming.

* * *

 

Years pass.


End file.
